Imagine rummaging through your nail polish drawer and finding a polish you had bought three years ago. You’d be happy wouldn’t you? Now imagine that the three-year-old polish you found, hasn’t dried out nor has the formulation separated!! Wouldn’t you be absolutely thrilled? That’s exactly what happened when I was going through my nail polish collection on thursday night, searching for colours that I hadn’t worn too frequently in recent times. I found this Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color in Mocha Mix that was still as good as the day I had bought it!!!

December 2011. That was when I had bought this polish when on a holiday in Singapore. The creamy, “hot chocolate” kind of colour looked very appealing under the bright store lights. However, once I got back, I wore this colour just once and then was back to all the bright pinks and corals and muted beiges and this colour somehow got pushed into the dark recesses of the drawer.

When I “re-discovered” this polish, I was almost ready to throw it away, because honestly, which polish survives for so long? To my shock and surprise, it hadn’t dried up at all nor had the formulation separated and I decided to wear it.

With Maybelline Glitter Mania “All That Glitters” on the ring finger.

Pardon the bad lighting. I took these pictures at night and they haven’t really come out that good. Also, I don’t know why my cuticles and knuckles look extra dark in this picture . Here’s a picture of the polish bottle taken in daylight. The shelf life of this polish is 30 months from the day of opening. Well, June 2014 is exactly 30 months since the time I first bought and used it and I’m glad that it’s still as good as new.

Mocha Mix is a rosy brown creme polish without any shimmers. From certain angles, it does look like chocolate milkshake. This is a colour that would look good on every skintone and is perfect for a polished, corporate look.

I love the texture of this polish as it has just the right thickness and doesn’t give a streaky look. While one coat looks good, two gives it total opacity. I’m wearing two coats in this picture without any top coat. The wear time is really good too and I still have it on my fingers, looking just as fresh and glossy, with just minimal tip wear. Of course, the polish wears out faster on my right hand but that’s to be expected.

In Dec 2011, this polish cost me SG$ 7.50 (at that time the Singapore dollar was around Rs. 40+) so this was approximately Rs. 300. Really good for a polish that doesn’t dry up for three years, don’t you think?